What Are You Really by Adam Ambriz
Poetry
What Are You Really
by Adam Ambriz
“Oh that’s so exotic / How cool / But what am I / A mix of forgotten cultures”
What Are You Really
by Adam Ambriz
A question loaded
To the brim
With single word answers
And follow ups
Oh that’s so exotic
How cool
But what am I
A mix of forgotten cultures
Silent stories
And dirty sneakers
I come from the desert: from people
Who erased their own existence
I have a face
That blends in and stands out
But never completely accepted
Lucky me
The bright-eyed blond
Stares blankly
Awaiting a reply
What do you think I am
That’s always my reply
Because I don’t know don’t care never will
About all that’s been lost
Culture through curation
A smattering of shadows
And spices
Olive skin and ambidextrous opinions
It’s easier to bend
Than be honest
Black white red brown mixed
All of it none of it some of it
I speak none of the tongues of the ancestors
Spinning in circles
Ex-label obsessed
Brown boy
Who can’t answer in Spanish or Farsi
too afraid to say
I have no idea what I am
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Ambriz is a multi-ethnic American writer and actor. His work has been produced at Pianofight, Zspace, San Francisco State University. Exploring the gray area of race and society, Adam’s work seeks to understand just what the meaning of the melting pot experience means. Being Persian and Mexican, the lines of community and city have always been at odds with one another, and through words and a watchful eye, Adam finds the lines that run between. More at ambriz.world.
Author photo by Jeremy Pangilinan. FEATURED IMAGE BY Josh Gilder.
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